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Werewolf
: An A-Z of Fantastic Beasts - "This classification refers, of course, to the werewolf in its transformed state".}} |Extinction = }}The werewolf was a human-being in the wizarding world who was infected by lycanthropy. Those who have lycanthropy were bitten by another werewolf and it's for that reason that werewolves were shunned by the wizarding world and employment was difficult to find. Upon transforming, they will have the mind of beast and forget who they were, and would even kill their best friend if they had a chance. About Appearance and behaviour The appearance of a werewolf during a transformation was near-identical to a true wolf, but a werewolf had a slightly shorter snout, smaller pupils and a tufted tail. The main difference was in the way they behave. A werewolf was very aggressive in comparison to a true wolf, and they prefer and target human prey. In human form again in the days following a transformation, a lycanthropy sufferer would look pallor, thinner and have dark circles under their eyes. Transformation The process would start by the human going rigid until their limbs began to shake. Their head and body began lengthening, their shoulders hunched and fur began growing on their face and body, curling into clawed paws. They snapped their long jaws and snarled. If a werewolf was chained up and therefore couldn't hunt and eat, they were in anguish and would even scratch their own body. If you get bitten by a werewolf when they were transformed, you would get lycanthropy too. It was an illness that infected the blood. If you were scratched by a werewolf when they were human, you will not become a werewolf but will develop wolf-like tendencies, including a fondness for raw meat. Any bite and scratch from a werewolf will leave a permanent scar. They later go back into human form, and were pallor and in ill health for the next few days. If a werewolf took a Wolfsbane Potion every day leading up to their transformation, they would keep a human mind and turn into a harmless wolf. Lycanthropy was not inherited, but a stigma existed around it to such an extent that werewolves very rarely married and had children. A known child of a werewolf was Teddy Lupin, but he was not a werewolf. Treatment By the end of the twentieth century, several potions and remedies were invented to help a werewolf. There was no cure for lycanthropy but the Wolfsbane Potion eliminated a lot of the pain and danger if taken, enabling a werewolf to keep their mind human during their transformation. It was a very difficult potion to create and it had lots of complicated ingredients. Remus Lupin described it to taste very bad, and adding any other ingredients including sugar would cause it to be useless. Society The wizarding society shunned werewolves because of stigma and fear. There was a fear that they posed a danger even in human form, and people looked at werewolves in disgust at what they could do. They were called insulting things including "half-breeds". Finding employment was very difficult and werewolves lived in poverty. Remus Lupin was forced to resign when he taught at Hogwarts School when parents were told he was a werewolf. Because of the way they were treated, there were werewolves who grew to hate the wizarding world and created their own society. They lived "underground" in unknown locations and were easily persuaded by the Dark Arts. Fenrir Greyback was a ruthless werewolf who joined the Death Eaters. He purposely infected people and killed, and fought in the Second Wizarding War at least. Lupin spied in an underground werewolf society during that war for the Order of the Phoenix but it's unknown if they took part in that war like Fenrir. However, they thought that under Voldemort's rule, they could have a better chance at life and that was why they were inclined to favour the Death Eaters, but even they thought low of werewolves. The wizarding governments had a lack of understanding and respect for werewolves and so they had incompetent laws that never served to improved their relationship. Since the Werewolf Code of Conduct of 1637, they had a framework for how werewolves had to safely co-exist in the wizarding world, e.g. they had to be locked up when they transformed and werewolves had to sign a copy of the code to say that they complied. They eventually founded the Werewolf Registry, asking people to admit to being a werewolf by signing it. They even founded the Werewolf Support Services but they closed it because no-one ever used it. They could never determine whether a werewolf was a Being / a Beast and shunted their services in Being divisions to Beast divisions for years (the Werewolf Support Services were in a Being division, but the Werewolf Registry and Werewolf Capture Unit were in a Beast division). History In the 20th century, Newton Scamander founded the Werewolf Registry. There were stories about werewolves living in the Forbidden Forest. In 1975, an unknown author wrote Hairy Snout, Human Heart about the struggle they had being a werewolf. Newton Scamander called it "heart-rendering" and it appears to have to helped garner sympathy and understanding. Prior to 1992, Gilderoy Lockhart wrote a book called Wanderings with Werewolves about a time he supposedly spent fighting werewolves and defeated the Wagga Wagga werewolf. In Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts School, he had Harry Potter act werewolf scenes in the book. Lockhart was eventually found to be a fraud, and that story was probably stolen from another wizard if it ever even happened. In 1993 to 1994, Defence Against the Dark Arts was taught by Remus Lupin who was a werewolf. Professor Snape had to concoct Wolfsbane Potions for Lupin. Werewolves were taught to third-year students at Hogwarts School. Snape had to fill in for Lupin for a lesson, and he purposely taught students about werewolves. It was done in an effort to get Lupin to feel awkward, especially when he was given homework back about finding and killing werewolves. Notes and sources Category:Beasts Category:Beings